Three US flotations pulled as volatile markets hit pricing

THREE US companies became the latest to postpone their planned initial public offerings (IPOs) yesterday, as American floats struggle to get away in volatile markets.

Employee benefits provider WageWorks has indefinitely delayed its $49m (£30.3m) float, while Loyalty Alliance Enterprise’s listing has also been sidelined.

The marketing and data analytics company was slated to raise around $75m.

This week had been billed as a bumper period for the US IPO market, with 12 deals scheduled to come to market before the weekend.

But more than half of the floats have now run into problems, with Enduro Royalty Trust, Portuguese mobile marketing and payment services provider TIM, Seattle-based lender HomeStreet and 3-D motion-senser InvenSense also postponing listing planned for this week.

WageWorks failed to rouse investors’ interest despite slashing the pricing of its IPO to a range of $8-$9 per share last Thursday, cutting the value of the float from $100m to around $66m.

Also yesterday, Carbonite, which sells web-based computer backup products, cut the price range of its planned IPO by a third to $10-$11 per share from $15-$17 per share.
According to various underwriters, as well as Carbonite there are still IPOs planned this week for SandRidge Permian Trust, TrustWave, and Midland States Bancorp.